Cursed (30 page)

“Oh, hey, can you see if Izzy has my dog tags, too?” he asked, patting the place on his chest where they should be. “I gotta finish getting ready.”

“Yeah, sure. Did you ask Adrienne to come tonight?”

“I have no idea who Adrienne is,” he said curiously. “One of your friends?”

Tara didn’t seem to know how to respond.

“I’m meeting Kimmie and Mickey tonight. Like usual,” he added. He walked into his closet once more, this time to grab jeans.

“Kimmie?”

“I thought I was bad with names,” he teased. “I’ve only been dating her for like, two years.”

“I thought you broke up.”

“What? No. She’s beautiful. Smart, nice. Daddy approves of her,” he added, rolling his eyes.

“Is that why you’re dating her? Because your daddy wants you to?” Tara sounded angry.

What is with all these women tonight?
There were days he thought he was cursed and days he
knew
he was.

“No, Tara. I’ve been in love with her since third grade.” He sighed. “Can you go get my dog tags?”

There was a moment of silence. She didn’t answer but slammed his door on the way out.

Who on earth was Adrienne? Someone Tara was trying to hook him up with?

Jayden changed clothes then checked his emails to find the address for the party. Oddly enough, an email from an Adrienne St. Croix was waiting for him. He opened it.

J-

Thank you so much for today. You’re the only good part of my life right now. I’ll see you at school Monday.

A.

He read it twice. He didn’t know any Adrienne, and certainly wouldn’t spend the day with anyone but Kimmie. Was Tara pranking him?

The email seemed too personal, genuine. He felt the emotion behind it. Tara wasn’t that convincing when she tried to lie. He doubted her friends were capable of much more. If anything, the email was probably sent to him by mistake.

Still, the note disturbed him, maybe because he wasn’t able to remember what exactly he did today.

Hitting the reply button, he typed a response.

Hi Adrienne,

I think you sent this to the wrong “J.” Glad you had a nice day.

Jayden

Feeling as though he’d done one nice thing in his odd day, he pulled on comfortable shoes and left his closet.

Tara was standing outside his door once more. He eyed her, not understanding the inquisitive expression on her face. She wasn’t happy with him. He had no idea why, beyond his outburst at Izzy.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Yep.” She spun and strode down the hallway.

It’s going to be a long night.

Jayden followed her out of the house to the car. He drove them away from their father’s opulent housing development south.

Tara didn’t speak the entire way. It wasn’t like her at all to keep quiet.

Jayden didn’t press her. He’d managed to piss off every woman he crossed paths with today. He wasn’t going to hang himself again.

His sister’s silence disturbed him on some level. The longer it lasted, the more concerned he became. He held off on addressing it, though, until they pulled into the driveway of the house party.

“You all right?” he ventured.

“Fine.”

“Really?”

Tara glared at him.

“I’ll take that as a no,” he said. “I’m always here, if you want to talk.”

“You’re an absolute dick, Jayden.”

Startled by her words, he focused on parking before turning to her.

Tara didn’t wait for him to talk but opened the car door and got out, slamming it shut.

He winced.
Maybe I don’t want to remember what I did today.

He got out of the car, intent on finding the one woman who could always brighten his day.

Jayden waded into the party. The scent of alcohol was thick in the air, and music pounded loudly. The furniture of the living room had been pushed aside to create a dance floor while other students huddled in small groups, drinking and laughing.

“Hey! Nice win last night!” someone called to him.

Jayden stopped to greet and slap hands with the members of the football team. He recalled their insane win the night before and began to relax. Someone thrust a plastic cup of beer in his hand, and he sipped as he walked.

His eyes took in the crowd, but he didn’t see the face he sought. He walked through the kitchen and grabbed a handful of pretzels then continued out back, where a bonfire blazed and more students were gathered.

At long last, he saw Kimmie. She appeared to be arguing with another member of the football team. Every time he saw her, it was like the first time. Her natural, graceful beauty and willowy body made him burn for her with inhuman need. Her scent, the feel of her soft skin … the anticipation was killing him.

He crossed the backyard to her. “Everything okay?” he asked casually, glancing at the football player named Deon.

“Awesome,” Deon snapped. “You were right to dump this bitch, Jay. She’s psycho.” He strode away, furious.

Dump
? A strange emotion went through Jayden, one that made him uneasy. First Tara, now Deon.

“Hey, baby, you okay?” he asked, approaching Kimmie.

“Baby?” she echoed, hands on her hips.

“I missed you.” Jayden wrapped his arms around her and breathed in her scent deeply.

“What’re you doing, Jayden?” she demanded. She pushed him back.

“Hugging the most beautiful girl on the planet.” He grinned.

Kimmie studied him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “This has been one weird day. Don’t you go weird on me, too.”

She touched his chest. “What happened to your dog tags?”

“I think Izzy hid them. She does that sometimes,” he said with a shrug. “What? No kiss?”

A slow smile spread across Kimmie’s face. She leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his head down to hers.

“I missed you, too,” she whispered.

“I can’t get enough of you. I want all of you. Every day. Every night.”

“I brought protection in case … you know.”

“God, yeah.” Jayden’s blood surged in response. “I need you, Kimmie.”

“I know, Jayden. I know.”

He closed his eyes and kissed her. With his Kimmie in his arms, his body relaxed and the stress of his day disappeared.

This is how it should be,
he thought, content.

Adrienne’s Sunday passed fast and uneventfully. No more zombies showed up in her apartment, and she was able to make it through half the journal before her daddy came home. She barely slept that night, apprehensive about showing her face at school the next morning. She asked the gods and spirits to magically send her back to Atlanta without success and awoke with dread heavy in her stomach.

When she made it to campus, her heart began to pound, and her palms grew sweaty. Adrienne felt ill with worry by the time she walked through the hallway towards her first class. She hadn’t seen Jayden yet and had told Christie she needed to rest her voice after Friday’s assembly.

Christie seemed sympathetic, no doubt buying the excuse that Adrienne had a throat injury. Anyone who heard her coughing would believe it.

I hate my life!
She thought, recalling the worst day of her life clearly.

“
Swamp Girl!”
More than one student called to her then burst into laughter or exaggerated hacking while others whispered and giggled when she passed them.

She did her best to ignore them, though the words hurt. Every part of her being wanted her to run, but she’d vowed to be strong and pretended sometimes to be Jayden, who was too easygoing to be affected by the opinions of others, and sometimes that she was Rene, who was tough enough to beat the daylights out of anyone who crossed his path.

Right now, she wished she really was Rene. She’d drag Kimmie out of class and beat her until she reversed the curse.

Adrienne was miserable by the time she reached her locker. She opened it and leaned in as far as she could, imagining she was an ostrich with her head in the sand. She sighed. Classes hadn’t even started, and she was agitated from the walk down the hall.

Assuming her scholarship would be gone before the week was over, she hadn’t even done her homework yesterday, instead concentrating on the song hidden in the journal. Adrienne pulled out the notebook she was using to write the music. She’d taken pictures of the pages she hadn’t gotten to the day before with her iPad with the intent of losing herself in the notes and musical staff during classes.

“Hey, Addy.”

She groaned internally. It wasn’t Emma voice, which meant someone was coming to personally ridicule her. Steeling herself, Adrienne pushed the locker door closed enough to see who stood beside it.

Tara was there, looking more perfect and doll-like in the school-issued uniform than Addy ever would.

“You, um, want me to walk to class with you?” Tara asked.

Adrienne shook her head. “No, thanks.”

“Omigod, don’t act like the twins. I’m walking you to class.”

She almost objected but saw the determined look on Tara’s face. Unable to determine why Tara wanted to walk with the least popular kid in school, Adrienne sighed and closed her locker. No doubt, there was something else humiliating in store for her from the horrible cheer squad.

With Tara beside her, the mockery and snickering were less frequent. Students focused on the beautiful brunette rather than Adrienne, and for once, Adrienne was glad to go unnoticed.

“So, uh, I wanted to ask you something,” Tara started, leading them down a second hallway with no lockers and few students.

“Okay.” Adrienne braced herself.

“This voodoo stuff. It can make people … do things, right?”

Adrienne stopped and faced her. “Why?”

Tara didn’t look like she sought some magic spell to use for vindictive reasons. If anything, she appeared troubled.

“How do you know if someone is under a curse?” she asked, ignoring Adrienne’s question.

“Their behavior could change suddenly, or like me. I suddenly lost a skill I’d had since I was young. If I lost my voice, it might make sense, but I lost the ability to sing, not talk.”

“So anyone can buy one of these spells, like even for bad reasons?”

“Why don’t you tell me why you’re asking first,” Adrienne said.

Tara shrugged. “I just need to know.”

Adrienne debated not answering, afraid the girl meant to hurt someone by buying a spell from a
bokor
.

“People can buy spells from a priestess or priest. Those who sell them are called
bokors
, and they can sell good magic or black magic. Some don’t care and sell whatever makes them the most money while others just create healing and protective spells. People who buy spells to hurt others are likely to be punished by the gods, three times over whatever harm they caused,” Adrienne explained.

“So Kimmie taking your voice means something three times worse will happen to her?” Tara asked.

“Yeah, at the discretion of the spirits, of course.”

“This is bizarre. I can’t believe I’m talking about this, like it’s real.”

“It
is
real.”

“You can buy any kind of spell? Like zombies or love spells or whatever?”

“Yep,” Adrienne said, crossing her arms. “You aren’t thinking of buying one, are you?”

“No. Let’s say someone bought a curse and put it on someone. How do you lift it?”

“The easiest way,” Adrienne sighed. “You ask the person who put it on you to lift it. If that’s not an option, then you go to a
mambos
and ask for her help healing you.”

Tara was quiet, thoughtful.

“It’s the only reason I’m at school today,” Adrienne added sadly. “I have to find Kimmie. I need to ask her to lift the hex she put on me.”

“Interesting.” Tara wasn’t paying attention.

Rolling her eyes, Adrienne started walking again.

“Wait. Can I ask you one more thing?” Tara asked, catching up to her.

“Why not.”

“Do you have Rene’s phone number?”

Adrienne turned, astonished.

Tara smiled. “I just want to thank him for rescuing me.”

Seriously? Rene gets a date out of this and I can’t show myself at school?

The warning bell sounded.

“You can email it to me,” Tara told her. “If you have time after school today, could we talk again?”

“No. I’ve got to catch the bus,” Adrienne replied, stalking away. Was everyone at this school selfish and stupid?

She went to her first class and hurried to the back of the room before the other students filed in. A few glanced her way, and the two members of the cheer squad whispered and snickered, looking at her frequently.

Adrienne wanted to crawl away and hide in her locker. Instead, she tuned out everything around her and focused on decoding the journal. She flipped open her iPad only to see more horrible emails had started to trickle in.

An email from Emma caught her attention.

Adrienne,

We are still friends. I understand. Kimmie embarrasses me all the time. We can have salads today.

Your friend,

Emma

The simple message made Adrienne’s eyes mist over. How did sweet Emma bear through Kimmie’s bullying? Adrienne said a short prayer for her friend, thanking the spirits and the Christian and voodoo gods for sending someone like Emma into her life, especially now, when there really wasn’t anyone else she’d consider a friend.

Except maybe Jayden, if he spoke to her today.

Focused on the journal, Adrienne didn’t notice the class flying by. The bell rang, startling her. She put her things away hastily, wanting to make it to the next class fast enough to grab a seat in back.

As she walked through the hallways, she looked for Jayden or Kimmie, hoping she was able to run into both of them today at some point, yet dreading the interactions as well. Jayden ignoring her or laughing at her would crush her, and Kimmie would be horrible to deal with.

Adrienne grabbed the last seat in the back of her second class and checked her email. She hesitated before opening Tara’s email, afraid Jayden’s stepsister would be making fun of her like the rest. It was short.

Addy,

I’m serious – let’s hang out after school. We can get ice cream. I really do want Rene’s number.

Tara

Adrienne mumbled to herself. “You can have any guy at school. Leave Rene alone.”

What did Tara really want from her? Adrienne had sensed worry when they discussed curses. Had Kimmie hexed her, too?

Her daddy’s email popped up. Adrienne glanced up at the instructor then checked it, expecting it to be another brief note about how he was working late.

Addy,

They found her in our dumpster. I done called a realtor about moving. Not safe for you there.

Daddy

He included a link. Curious, Adrienne clicked on it and read the article about the latest victim of the elusive serial killer that had stalked the slums for almost five years. The cops claimed it was drug-related, though the press was openly disputing the claim, saying it was the serial killer that had been in the Projects for years.

Okay, no more alleys for me,
Adrienne thought, reading the article. It was creepy to think about something this awful happening so close. She felt bad for the woman and lucky she had Rene to protect her.

Adrienne scrolled to the bottom of the article, her breath sticking in her throat.

The picture of the victim was the woman who came to visit her Saturday.

She re-read the article. The body was found Saturday evening when one of the residents of the apartment building took out the trash, with the police saying her time of death was a little after four, around the time Adrienne saw her.

Adrienne’s mind worked quickly, but she couldn’t piece together what might’ve happened. The woman had seemed possessed when she appeared in Adrienne’s apartment. What was the connection to her sister? Had this woman known Therese and been entrusted with the message?

She went through her sent box to find Candace’s email address and forwarded her daddy’s note to Candace with a note about how she’d seen the woman soon before the police said she’d been killed. Enthralled by the new mystery surrounding her sister, Adrienne sat in deep thought for her second class, trying to determine what might’ve happened. Had the possessed woman wandered into the alley after visiting Adrienne and been killed? In broad daylight?

Nothing made sense.

Tara emailed again, along with a few more students with the subject lines of
Swamp Girl
.

Adrienne deleted the other students’ emails then closed her inbox, not wanting to deal with the high maintenance sister of Jayden when she had something far more important on her mind.

She didn’t fit in. She never would. She needed to find Kimmie. Once she did, she could leave this place.

When the bell chimed to mark the end of her second class, she bolted from the room, desperate to fix one mess in her life. She couldn’t help the woman who died in the alley, but she might be able to address the curse.

Adrienne went to the hallway where Kimmie’s locker was, hoping Kimmie dropped by her locker before her next class. Turning the corner, Adrienne slowed. At first, she was embarrassed at the sight of the couple in the middle of a heavy make out session. They seemed oblivious to the kids filling the hallway, caught up in kissing and petting. Kimmie was pressed up against the lockers, her arms around the neck of a tall, familiar form.

“Jayden?” Adrienne uttered his name before she was able to stop herself.

“Get a room!” someone called.

Jayden flung his head back and laughed, stepping back. “Sorry, babe. You do that to me.”

Adrienne couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. She felt as if someone had hit her.

“You know I love it,” Kimmie purred, glowing happily. She smoothed Jayden’s vest and ran her hands down his chest to his belt. She tugged at it. “Later. Promise.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” replied Jayden in his low, husky voice.

“Jay, c’mon!” Mickey shouted from the hallway behind Adrienne.

Jayden ducked his head to kiss Kimmie lightly, appearing as enamored as Kimmie. Adrienne had seen that smile directed at her before. It was breathtaking, even now, when her heart was shattering.

He hadn’t been serious about her at all. Not about being sorry for hurting her or the second chance. Were the dog tags even real? She gripped them, the cool metal biting into her skin and keeping her anchored in the surreal world.

Adrienne moved behind a group of students, watching Jayden walk cheerfully past her. He didn’t notice her, and she released her breath when he passed. He bumped fists with Mickey, grinning.

Adrienne hurt. Only when he disappeared from view did she realize she was drawing more looks than usual. Frozen with her mouth agape, she didn’t want to know how stupid she appeared. She forced herself to push away her hurt and focused on her task: asking Kimmie to lift the spell.

It was the only reason she had to be here.

“Kimmie,” she said, approaching.

Kimmie glanced up then back, her gaze critical as it swept over Adrienne.